Ad Nausica

Hunting and Gathering Evidence about Paleo

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 14:26:00 -0400

You might be interested to pick up the book Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us about Sex,...

(Coigitica) Beating the Competition - Part IV: Driving Innovation

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 13:44:00 -0400

http://www.coigiti.ca/?p=218 This is my fourth post in this series looking at the misuse of...

(Coigitica) Beating the Competition - Part III: The Descent of Efficient Value

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 21:12:23 -0400

http://www.coigiti.ca/?p=172In Part I of this series I looked at the Prisoner’s Dilemma and how the...

Sam Harris's self-fulfilling prophecy: how to be irrational about being rational about gun control

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:30:00 -0500

Shortly following my last criticism of Sam Harris’ article on gun control he posted a...

Little known fact: I'm sexier than Ryan Gosling

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 07:00:00 -0500

Do you recognize the woman in this photo? I’ll give you a hint: you might have seen her in a...

Sam Harris riddled with errors on gun control

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 06:30:00 -0500

Sam Harris recently posted a blog article as part of the post-Newtown gun control debates (The...

Molly Crockett: Beware neuro-bunk.This is a good look at the...

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 01:13:49 -0500

Molly Crockett: Beware neuro-bunk.This is a good look at the annoyance of science as presented in the mainstream media and producers. I think we need to do better. If we don’t control the scientific message, others will and for their own benefits. I think it even harms science, as some of these stories make scientists look stupid, directionless, and incompetent when one year scientists discover that an activity is good for us and the next discover it is bad. (The reality is more likely that science showed neither conclusion and these are misrepresentations of preliminary studies of very different things or non-monotonic relationships.)

“The Tinkerers”: How corporations kill creativity

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 21:59:07 -0500

“The Tinkerers”: How corporations kill creativity

The Innovator's Straightjacket - and missing the keys

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 09:47:00 -0500

The Innovator's Straightjacket - and missing the keys: Scott Anthony has a good half-article over...

The Dyson Dilemma

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 22:37:00 -0500

Freeman Dyson is somewhat of a legend in theoretical physics. He is less known for his contributions...

Model Camera Russell gives an impressive TEDx talk. It...

Sat, 08 Dec 2012 08:08:54 -0500

Model Camera Russell gives an impressive TEDx talk. It didn’t go where I was expecting, which is perhaps part of her message. She was raw and introspective while being articulate and entertaining, all in under ten minutes. I found this appropriate for Ad Nausica, primarily a scientific-minded blog, because she does a great job of recognizing that there is an evolved, instinctive, biological drive for selecting beauty but that culture and historical happenstance play a big part in the finer details what gets portrayed as beauty in modern society. I’m also impressed at her recognition of chance of circumstance in her success, a lesson that many in the world of business and finance should learn from books such as Leonard Mlodinow’s “The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules our Lives” and Burton Malkiel’s classic “A Random Walk Down Wall Street”. This does not mean talent or merit play no part, of course, just that you can’t attribute success solely (or mostly) to either or failure to the lack of both.

N.N. Taleb's Anti-fragile Swan Song?

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 14:08:00 -0500

I’m finding lots of interesting nuggets from following author Matt Ridley recently. He just posted a...

Riddles of Sexual Selection and Inequality

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 14:33:00 -0500

[Updates at bottom on Matt Ridley response] Author Matt Ridley has written much about the economics...

Canada gets the bronze: Why Nate Silver's forecast accuracy is unachievable in Canada

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 13:35:00 -0500

Perhaps the most interesting side story coming out of the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election is the...

Why Nate Silver is a fox

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 08:03:00 -0500

Yesterday I read a lot of stories celebrating the big winner of the U.S. 2012 Presidential Election....

The Problems of Innovation: Why We Don't Solve Big Problems

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 12:57:00 -0500

Jason Pontin at the MIT Technology Review wrote a great article on what is wrong with our model for...

Dilbert Comic for November 1, 2012

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 14:51:43 -0400

Dilbert Comic for November 1, 2012: This is my kind of critical thinking.

Wake up call: Are energy drinks healthier than coffee?

Sat, 13 Oct 2012 10:56:00 -0400

It’s no secret that I find the whole concept of “natural” and...

"The problem with any ideology is that it gives the answer before you look at the evidence"

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 14:32:19 -0400

“The problem with any ideology is that it gives the answer before you look at the...

If you think “alternative” methods work, why...

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 22:11:22 -0400

If you think “alternative” methods work, why aren’t you rich yet by putting them to good functional use?